| Crumblin' Down | |
| Cover: | Crumblin' Down Mellencamp.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | John Cougar Mellencamp |
| Album: | Uh-Huh |
| B-Side: | Golden Gates |
| Released: | October 1983 |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 3:33 |
| Label: | Riva |
| Producer: | John Mellencamp, Don Gehman |
| Prev Title: | Hand to Hold on To |
| Prev Year: | 1982 |
| Next Title: | Pink Houses |
| Next Year: | 1983 |
"Crumblin' Down" is a rock song co-written and performed by John Mellencamp, released as the lead single from his 1983 album Uh-Huh. It was a top-ten hit on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian pop charts, and it reached #2 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.
"Crumblin' Down" was written by Mellencamp and longtime writing partner George Green. It was the last song recorded for Uh-Huh; after listening to the masters for the other tracks recorded, Mellencamp decided that the album needed a song that would work as the album's lead single. He contacted Green, with whom he had previously written "Hurts So Good," to solicit ideas. Green had begun a song with lines about walls crumbling down; he and Mellencamp then built the song by trading lines, attempting to top one another.[1]
According to Green, the song attempts to answer the question of what to do when success eventually fades, and "the big-time deal falls through." The song touches on Mellencamp's fame as well as the frustrations of losing one's livelihood: the lyrics were inspired, in part, by Mellencamp's cousin losing his job as an electrical engineer.
In a 2016 Mellencamp-dedicated exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a display was emblazoned with the following quote from Mellencamp: "Crumblin' Down is a very political song that I wrote with my childhood friend George Green. Reagan was president - he was deregulating everything and the walls were crumbling down on the poor. The song was the last one recorded and the first single. It was a hit immediately. I felt like I was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes."
The video for "Crumblin' Down" received heavy play on MTV. It featured a chain-smoking Mellencamp in intentionally ripped denim jeans, dancing and kicking over chairs on a stage in an empty auditorium. As the video progresses, he dances among a row of parking meters, climbs and descends a tall stepladder, and gains a three-piece backing band as accompaniment for the final chorus. "Crumblin' Down" was the first single released by Mellencamp to include his real last name: previous releases were credited to "John Cougar."[2]
"Crumblin' Down" was the lead single from Uh-Huh, following his previous hit single "Hand to Hold on To" (from 1982's American Fool) to the Billboard Top 40, where it debuted October 22, 1983. It peaked at number 9 on that chart and at number 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart.[3]
"Crumblin' Down" is also included on Mellencamp's greatest hits compilations The Best That I Could Do 1978–1988 and .[4]
| Chart (1983–1984) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina[5] | 7 | |
| Canada RPM Top Singles | 9 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[6] | 9 | |
| US "Billboard" Mainstream Rock | 2 |